Physicians and politicians criticize Yoon’s ‘no problem’ remark for denying reality

President Yoon Suk Yeol's national administration briefing on Thursday was criticized by the medical community and political circles as “reality denial.”

Physicians and opposition politicians said President Yoon “takes too lightly” the medical crisis sparked by his policy to increase the medical school enrollment quota for 2025 by 2,000.

Wrapping up a workshop for lawmakers on Friday, Rep. Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), criticized President Yoon's public briefing the previous day as “a self-aggrandizing feast of words filled with arrogance and self-righteousness.”

“President Yoon has watched ruined public livelihood, medical turmoil, economic crisis, and unstable national security as if they were fire on the other side of the river and gave irrelevant answers to journalists’ questions,” Park said. “Most Koreans are worried about the possibility of the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day) medical crisis becoming a reality, but the president answered that the reality in the medical field was not problematic, making people wonder if he knew the situation at medical sites and what kind of report he received from whom.”

Park added that people are dying because they are unable to find ERs after wandering around so many hospitals that are able and willing to treat them.

In a statement, DPK lawmakers said, “After two years and four months of the arrogant and self-righteous rule of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, the fate of the Republic of Korea hangs in the balance. The government is helpless in the face of the medical crisis, and people's lives are in danger. It is a total crisis and chaos unprecedented in history. We will do everything possible to revive the people's lives in ruins.”

Appearing on a radio talk show, Kim Min-seok, a DPK’s supreme council member, also said, “It's a total denial of reality. The president’s ability to recognize reality is abysmal. Those who reported or told (President Yoon) that there was nothing wrong with the patients’ desperate search for an emergency room should be punished.”

“Looking back, former President Syngman Rhee and other dictators also showed their perception of the reality was far from that of the people. Those who reported to President Yoon might have problems. More fundamentally, however, what matters is the ruler's perception, efforts, and attitude to see reality as it is,” Kim added.

Kim pointed out that the DPK has discussed a step-by-step approach to the medical school enrollment quota issue instead of mechanically sticking to the 2,000 number.

He also noted that the ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon's proposal for a one-year moratorium could be one of the many alternatives to be discussed.

“However, Han does not seem to work hard to push his idea,” Kim added.

‘Admit that you failed’ -- a former PPP leader

Rep. Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party told President Yoon, “You can honestly admit you failed. You can admit that you failed by trying to solve the problem by sharply increasing the number of doctors without any realistic measures.”

“I think the president is taking the emergency medical situation too lightly,” Lee said on Thursday's CBS Radio news show. Lee criticized President Yoon's remark that there was no problem in the medical field as “out of touch,” saying, “The trickle-down effect in the medical community cannot improve the situation.”

He also criticized the policy of expanding medical students to gain votes before the general election, saying that it followed the basic sentiment that “Doctors make a lot of money. Shouldn’t we change it?”

“You have to be honest and say, 'We tried to get votes, but it didn't work,’” Lee said. “There is no brake because President Yoon wants to increase his approval rating by bashing doctors initially. There is no brake because he wants to gain support by bashing groups disliked by the public one after another.”

Kim Woong, a former lawmaker from the ruling People Power Party (PPP), cited the story of former PPP emergency committee leader Kim Jong-in's struggle to find a hospital to treat a split forehead from a fall.

“Medical services used to be unavailable in some remote areas. Now, the whole country has become like that because of the half-baked healthcare reform,” Kim said.

Korean healthcare has no hope – medical professors

The medical community also criticized Yoon.

“You have irreparably damaged Korean healthcare and are still talking about reform,” the National Emergency Committee of Medical Professors criticized Yoon in a statement on Friday. “It reminds us of 1997 when the then president assured us that there would never be a foreign exchange crisis until 20 days before it broke out.”

“It has reached the limit. Now the medical crisis is not just a problem in the provinces and emergency rooms, but a nationwide medical collapse has begun, including the Seoul metro region,” the committee said. ”They briefed and advertised daily that there is a medical crisis because of doctors. Now, they are deceiving the public by saying there is no problem with emergency or regional medical care. Have you visited medical sites and heard the cries of emergency and severe patients?”

The committee added that there is still time to save medical care before the college entrance examination for the 2025 academic year begins and called for the medical student increase policy to be withdrawn.

“If the entrance examination is held on Sept. 9 and the number of medical school seats for 2025 is increased, there is no hope for Korean healthcare anymore,” it said. “Korea overcame the currency crisis in four years, but Korean healthcare, which was ruined by the Office of the President, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Education, will not return.”

The committee continued, “The increase of medical students should be stopped immediately so that doctors and medical students can devote themselves to essential and community medicine with hope for the future,” urging the National Assembly to investigate the matter and the judicial branch to decide to suspend the expansion of 2,000 medical students.